Embarrassingly, I speak for many when I say that I have purposefully prank called 911. Granted I was about 5 years old at the time, but nevertheless. Approximately 15 minutes afterward, a police car pulled up to my house, and my shocked father scrambled to figure out why there were officers at our front door. Although prank calling is an activity I no longer partake in, many owners of cell phones today accidentally call 911 without even knowing it.

According to National Emergency Number Association, accidental wireless calls account for at least 25 percent of all 911 calls. If the numbers ?91? are dialed into a cell phone, it is programmed to assume the user wants to dial 911 and will connect the call.  

But what if some of these ?phantom calls? are not accidental? In some emergencies, individuals cannot or should not speak for fear of endangering themselves further. But they need to notify the authorities somehow. What happens to those who desperately need the assistance 911 provides, but cannot speak?  

What if there was a burglar in my house ? would I really want to let him know where I was by speaking with a 911 operator? Perhaps I dislocate my jaw in a car accident and am rendered incapable of producing coherent words?

It is apparent that 911, the service, needs an update. And that update means developing a text messaging service.

As the text messaging craze continues, it seems self-evident that our services would make similar technological adjustments. According to The Wireless Association, ?In 2004, U.S. cell phone users sent 203 text messages on average, or 37 billion total.? This is almost a six-fold increase from 2000, when the average number of text messages per year was around 35.  

It is not only teenagers texting these days either. The number of adults aged 35 to 44 have also increased their texting savvy, holding steady at 25 percent of the demographic. I myself find it odd to think that my professors may be texting each other back and forth about upcoming academic conferences or meetings in the faculty lounge for a cup of coffee. ?1 of my students thought realism was the same as liberalism lol!?

Text messaging has developed as a primary means of communication ? simple, less awkward than a phone conversation, and they tend to get right to the point. So why hasn?t 911 developed a way in which to incorporate this new technology?

To be fair, 911 has been adapting progressively as the usage of cell phones has increased. According to NENA, around 240 million calls were made to 911 in the United States last year alone. Approximately one-third of these calls were made from cellular devices.    

When cell phones increased substantially in popularity, 911 went through three phases regarding cell phones.  

The first phase, Phase 0, adapted the system so cell phone calls were to be considered like any other call. It was antiquated in that a person?s call could be picked up by any 911 operator at any public safety answering point (PSAP). Hypothetically, I could have gotten into an accident in La Crosse and had an operator in Madison pick up the call. Doesn?t sound too appealing in the event of an emergency, does it?

With the introduction of Phase 1 in 1998, 911 operators were able to immediately receive the phone number of the cellular device in use. If the call were to disconnect, operators were able to confer with cell phone companies in order to identify the owner of the phone used. The system was definitely improving, but a caller still could not be located.

In 2001, Phase 2 introduced technology that provided a 911 operator, upon answering the call, with the cell phone number along with the location of the cellular signal.

But what happens to someone who dials 911 purposefully, in the event of an emergency, and then realizes that he or she cannot speak? Although operators are trained to call disconnected calls, without an eventual conversation, a victim has no assurance an emergency vehicle will reach him or her in time.

It is time for Phase 3, where an operator has a computer that will receive emergency text messages. Lives could be saved and criminals reprimanded, if only the technology would be developed and utilized. It may be an expensive development, but when considering the individuals and the circumstances that require such a service, isn?t it too costly to not develop such a system?

Hannah Karns ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and international studies.